Florentine Brotherhood
by Ghost Chibi
Summary: Drabbles about the Assassin's Order in Florence, and the assassins that inhabit it's Bureau. All OC's, rated T for language.
1. Character Profiles

A/N: Here are the character profiles for the characters in Florentine Brotherhood. I thought that it might make it easier to understand the drabbles if people knew who each character was.

Name: Aquilum  
Age: 29  
Position: Brotherhood Leader  
Weapon of choice: Axe  
Mask: Silver Eagle  
Bio: The much-respected and much-loved leader of the Florentine Assassin's Brotherhood, he has no actual assassin roots. Despite this, he is a skilled Master Assassin and a perfectly competent leader. He carries out assassinations just as much as the other assassins do, and tries his best to keep his Bureau in good condition. He gets along well with the others, although the few disagreements he has with Leonus tend to turn violent. Aside from that, Aquilum is a level-headed, down-to-earth and logical leader.

Name: Leonus  
Age: 28  
Position: Leader's Assistant  
Weapon of choice: Sword  
Mask: Gold Lion  
Bio: The stoic and somewhat apathetic assistant of Aquilum, his strict upbringing by his pious yet very greedy parents led him to become an assassin to make Florence a better place. He is easily flustered or irritated by things, and his biggest "weakness" is his soft spot for Serpena. His caustic tounge is well-known by the assassins, although they don't really pay much attention to his words as much as they do the fact that Leonus get extremely flustered when around Serpena. He also loves swords, and has a large collection of them in his room.

Name: Ursus  
Age: 28  
Position: Traveler  
Weapon of choice: Butcher's Knife  
Mask: Brown Bear  
Bio: The elder twin brother of Canis, and an avid traveler. Ursus loves a good laugh, and is constantly tricking the novices. He travels throughout Italy with Canis, visiting the Thieves' Guilds in other cities and states to gather information and carry out assassinations. He loves to tease guards as well, which gets him into quite a bit of trouble on a daily basis.

Name: Canis  
Age: 28  
Position: Traveler  
Weapon of choice: Mastiff  
Mask: Yellow Dog  
Bio: The younger twin brother of Ursus, Canis is a easygoing and laid back person. His faithful dog Cerberus is his partner in fighting, and he is quite a dangerous fighter. Canis' lazy personality means that he can usually be found in the Bureau entrance flopped on Leonus' desk or sleeping on the pillows laid out. Still, he is a perfectly competent assassin, with his only drawbacks being his laziness and his love of angering guards.

Name: Vulpinus  
Age: 27  
Position: Informant  
Weapon of choice: Dagger  
Mask: Red Fox  
Bio: Vulpinus is a somewhat odd person. He is an excelent spy and is perfect for his job of collecting information. His tendency to hand upside-down from the Bureau ceiling is the cause of much laughter for the novices and much annoyance for Leonus. He is Lupens' teacher and good friend, although they tend to annoy eachother as well.

Name: Serpena  
Age: 26  
Position: Medic  
Weapon of choice: Poison  
Mask: Violet Snake  
Bio: Although Serpena is a good listener, she has very little emotion due to being an assassin for so long. In a contradictory manner, she has a soft spot for Leonus, and cares very deeply about him. She is a brilliant young woman, but her lack of emotion leads her to quite a bit of confusion as to why people act certain ways when faced with certain situation. As teacher to Mus, she attempts to teach him as much as she can, but she generally fails to get him to understand medicine.

Name: Arachnae  
Age: 26  
Position: Mapmaker  
Weapon of choice: Explosives  
Mask: Green Spider  
Bio: The somewhat unfornutate teacher of Cunicula and a skilled artist, Arachnae is the Brotherhood's main source of maps. She rarely goes out of the Bureau, sending Cunicula out to fetch her supplies and Vulpinus and Lupens to gather information. She is exasparated by the sillyness of her fellow assassins quite easily, although she has a big heart and really does care about them, especially the novices.

Name: Lacerta  
Age: 26  
Position: Scribe  
Weapon of choice: Flail  
Mask: Crystal Lizard  
Bio: Lacerta is the most down-to-earth and "normal" of the Florentine Brotherhood, and acts as the scribe, librarian and accountant. She generally collaborates with Vulpinus and Lupens in getting information for the vast library located in the Bureau. She doesn't leave the library much, spending most of her time copying or deciphering texts, making profiles for the Brotherhood's people of interest and calculating funds. Her high rank is mostly due to her valuable skills as a scribe, and has little to do with her actual assassination skills (which are quite dismal).

Name: Corvus  
Age: 26  
Position: Blacksmith  
Weapon of choice: War Hammer  
Mask: Black Crow  
Bio: Crazy, brilliant and gifted with the hammer and anvil, Corvus is the blacksmith for the Brotherhood. Although his job is to make and fix armor and weapons for the assassins, he spends most of his time forging swords for Leonus and flirting with Mus. He becomes very insulted if the assassins buy armor from the blacksmiths around the city, and has a strict policy about recycling and reusing supplies by using broken weapons and armor to make new ones. He is fiercely protective of Mus and a best friend to Cunicula, and most of the others just think that he's out of his mind.

Name: Cunicula  
Age: 26  
Position: Mapmaker Apprentice  
Weapon of choice: Mace  
Mask: Pink Rabbit  
Bio: The hapless and hyperactive apprentice of Arachnae, Cunicula is one of the Brotherhood's many jesters. Her missions consist mostly of fetching supplies for Arachnae, but on occasion she goes out on assassinations. She is Corvus' best friend, going so far to call the two of them twins. Despite being somewhat irresponsible and frequently blaming botched missions (including her supply-fetching ones) on "too many guards," she is a very sweet person and can be emotional at times.

Name: Lupens  
Age: 24  
Position: Informant Apprentice  
Weapon of choice: Fists  
Mask: Blue Wolf  
Bio: The semi-serious and rant-prone apprentice to Vulpinus, Lupens is a complex person. He takes his job seriously but has no problem complaining about it at the same time. He complains mostly by ranting for quite a long time to anybody who will listen (or is unfortunate enough to be around him at the time), and is well known for his rants. If anything, Lupens is somewhat known by the guards as the "spastic assassin" due to his somewhat spastic fighting style of running away, flailing around, then running away again.

Name: Equa  
Age: 25  
Position: Caretaker  
Weapon of choice: Throwing Knives  
Mask: Orange Horse  
Bio: An animal-loving young lady, Equa doesn't fit the assassin design. She hates killing anything, and even allows rats and mice to run around the Bureau much to everyone's dismay (especially Cygna's). Equa is in charge of watching over the well-being of the animals in the Bureau, such as the horses, messenger birds and Cerberus. She frequently goes out and buys caged animals to let them loose, and her room is usually inhabited by small animals. She loves Cygna, but the two occasionally get into arguments over Equa's mice and rats in the granary.

Name: Mus  
Age: 24  
Position: Medic Apprentice  
Weapon of choice: Crossbow  
Mask: Gray Mouse  
Bio: The easily irritated and upset apprentice of Serpena, Mus is somewhat of a black sheep. He usually goes out on missions as an assistant to another assassin to act as a distraction, which he usually does by going out dressed as a courtesan. While his intellect is above average, it certainly can be lacking at times and his views on people are somewhat confusing. Mus is more of a philosopher than a scientist, and his grasp of medicine is slightly lacking. His true love lies in Corvus and he frequently "disappears" into the forge room to avoid missions.

Name: Cygna  
Age: 24  
Position: Herbalist  
Weapon of choice: Hidden Pistol  
Mask: White Swan  
Bio: Cygna takes care of the gardens of the Bureau. She grows medicinal and poisonous plants for Serpena and Mus' potions and small food crops for Equa's animals. Although she loves Equa, she is very annoyed with the Caretaker's insistence on keeping vermin in her room, and almost always finds mice and rats chewing at the bags of grain in the storeroom. Cygna is also a musician, and generally likes to sing with the minstrals when in disguise. Because of this, the guards call her singing the "music of death" and fear the sound of her voice.


	2. React

A/N: Here is the first drabble for Florentine Brotherhood. I hope you enjoy it.

Title: React  
Words: 554  
Genre: Hurt/Comfort  
Summary: Cunicula returns from her first assassination mission, Vulpinus accepts the dehumanization of his heart, and Aquilum laments the loss of his sympathy.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

For every assassin, there's a first time. The first Leap of Faith, the first time to put on a hidden blade, the first mission.

Probably the most traumatic first is the first kill.

Cunicula falls through the roof of the Bureau, her clothes covered in dark red splotches that have soaked through. She pulls herself off of the floor slowly, and Leonus isn't there at the counter. Instead, it's Aquilum. Her heart lifts a little, knowing that Aquilulm would be sympathetic.

"Aquilum, I killed someone," she murmurs as she hands him the bloody feather.

"I gathered that from this and that," Aquilum replies, twirling the feather and pointing at her clothes.

"I know, but I killed someone," Cunicula repeats, this time a little desperately.

"I heard you the first time," Aquilum sighs. "Now go get cleaned up, you're going to stain your clothes."

"Aquilum, you're not listening! I killed someone!" the younger assassin shouts, and all of the sudden realization hits Aquilum.

"I..." is all he can say before Cunicula is gone, probably halfway across Florence by now, sitting on a roof somewhere crying her eyes out. He curses his inability to remember the trauma of his first kill, and leans back in his chair.

Next Vulpinus falls through the roof, with that lopsided grin of his and an armful of scrolls and parchment. It's obvious that he's gotten into fights to get them, and his smile seems more and more superficial as he dumps his load in front of Aquilum.

"Plenty of news, including the death of Cunicula's target," he says with that humorous tone, but Aquilum doesn't feel that it's completely real.

"yeah, she just returned," Aquilum replies, and Vulpinus nods.

"Where is she going anyway? You didn't give her another job that fast, did you?" the researcher asks.

"No," is the leader's reply, and Vulpinus' smile is suddenly gone.

"Shock from the kill, huh..." he sighs, and runs his hand through his hair.

It's this sort of understanding between the two friends that allows them to say so little but communicate so much. They remain there for a while, thinking, before Vulpinus breaks the silence.

"You know, I've been having the opposite problem," he says, laughing humorlessly. "I go on missions with Lupens, some guards get in our way, and I don't even consider running an option anymore."

Aquilum listened with rapt attention. Vulpinus deserved that at least.

"I don't even think of the danger, not of how Lupens could get hurt. Gloves aren't really the best sort of protection against axes, after all," he continues. "I think of how to get rid of each guard, and I rarely consider being sneaky about it either. I'm losing my humanity."

Vulpinus sighs and walks toward the Bureau door. He turns to Aquilum one last time.

"I'll go find Cunicula," he says, and Aquilum nods before he's gone.

The Bureau is quiet again. Aquilum shakes his head in defeat. He does so because he can't relate to either of them, one with too much emotion, the other with too little. It's hard to find the line where the emotions of an assassin are to lie, and he knows that only they can find where that line needs to be.

It's hard being an assassin. It's even harder to lead a group of them.


	3. Blind

A/N: Second one-shot for FB. Apparently drabbles are stories that are exactly 100 words long... looks like everyone here's been using the word incorrectly. Whoops...

Title: Blind  
Words: 433  
Genre: General  
Summary: Lupens learns that blindness isn't as much of a handicap when it comes to sneaking into a guard's mind.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Darkness.

That was all that surrounded Lupens. He couldn't see a thing. He could feel the chains on his wrists and ankles, hear the guards clamoring past his cell, smell the scent of dirty water and rotting corpses, taste the metallic bite of blood in his dry mouth... but he couldn't see a thing.

He wondered if he had gone blind during the interrogations the guards had subjected him to. It was always a possibility. After all, they didn't really need him see to get information from him; they only needed his voice and memory.

But then again, the cell was completely dark anyway. Nobody had opened the door, there were no windows, and certainly no candles.

He closed his eyes and saw patterns swirl around them. But it didn't mean that he wasn't blind. He knew that even blind people could see those patterns.

"Hey assassino, where are your whore-mothered amici?" a guard yelled from outside the cell. Lupens smirked and answered in a cracked voice.

"None of my friends are the children of courtesans."

The guard growled in annoyance.

"Ordered to enrage the information from me?" he asked.

"Shut up assassino bastardo!"

"That's a yes, I suppose."

"I told you to shut up!"

Lupens laughed hoarsely.

"Taking orders isn't fun, is it? Believe me, I know. One of my higher-ups is not a polite person, and I always have to take my orders from him. I mean, he's not the top at the Bureau, but dio, he sure acts like it."

"Never knew assassins had to take orders from anyone," the guard replied. Lupens silently cheered.

"Yes we do. It isn't fun at all. 'You put the entire city on high alert!' or 'You're too slow with your missions!' or even 'You're bleeding all over the floor!' He's heartless, I tell you."

"Yeah... we're all disposable to the uppers," the guard said. "May not be the case for you assassins, but..."

"Eh, not quite disposable as much as we are unappreciated. Not that killers are ever really appreciated for killing people."

"I wouldn't expect so," the guard answered.

"Of course not. But it's disheartening when your leaders won't show any appreciation for what you do."

The shuffling of feet and an exchange of voices signaled the changing of the guards. The new one leaned on the door of Lupens' cell and laughed.

"So, assassino, aren't your bastardo-children friends coming to save you?"

Lupens smirked. Being in this godforsaken cell might have made him blind, but all the young assassin needed was his mind to get out alive.


End file.
